Title text:
In 1899, people were walking around shouting '23' at each other and laughing, and confused reporters were writing articles trying to figure out what it meant.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3184/
Funny enough, there's a point in a later book in the series where they suggest the "ultimate question'" that 42 is an answer to could be "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"
Which works in base 13!
Im 93% sure that 6*9 doesnt equal 42 in base 6227020800
which, when a mathemagician occasionally asked adams about it, he would respond along the lines of "oh fuck"